


Fall Into the Ocean and Burn

by ai_firestarter



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, F/F, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_firestarter/pseuds/ai_firestarter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She didn't think it would hurt this much. [Futurefic]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall Into the Ocean and Burn

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning: This is one of the most depressing things I’ve ever written. Remember, you were warned. Futurefic.

_She didn't think it would hurt this much._

Kirsch was the first to go. Carmilla had to admit, she'd grown fond of the overly earnest bro over the years. And he'd stepped up, eventually. Three years into their time at Silas, it had always been jarring to see how  _good_  he'd gotten with weapons, thanks to Danny's tutelage. How sometimes he'd be in on the joke, instead of being the joke. The glint of unexpected intelligence in his eye.

Their scarecrow had eventually gotten his brain.

Which had made it all the more tragic, seeing it splattered across Sheridan field mid-battle.

Mother's minions had always been ruthless, and the team had lost many acquaintances over the years. But Kirsch was the first casualty that fell close to home.

Laura had curled up in Carmilla's arms and cried for almost an hour. When Silas had still functioned as a university, back when they'd had some time to themselves, she probably would have taken a whole night.

Now, every moment was precious. An hour to Laura, now, was like an eternity.

It wasn't long until Danny had followed him into the deep. Perhaps it was losing her closest friend in the team, perhaps it was guilt. Danny had always been a protector. Perhaps it had merely been her time.

They'd been venturing into the library to seek texts that might enlighten them to Mother's weakness, when a group of vampires had gotten the jump on them. Perry, fearless Perry, had been terribly wounded, and Danny had protected her as Danny's new girlfriend, the wannabe doctor, had stitched her up.

They'd gotten Perry out of there, but Danny had stayed back to keep the vampires from following them out. LaFontaine would have stayed, but Perry had begged her not to leave her, her pride overcome by her fear she would not make it back to the dorms, and LaFontaine had done as she asked. LaFontaine had never been a fighter, though she'd always tried her best. 

Perry had clung to their treasure the entire time she was carried back. The book that could hold the answer to Mother's reign.

They'd all paced the dorm restlessly that night. The magical borders around Silas that Perry had rigged up, rough but strong, had held. Mother and her brood could not leave the campus, but neither could the humans of Laura's circle.

They'd all agreed when it had gone up that none wanted to leave. That they were all here until the end. That this was more important than grad school and getting married and having kids and getting good jobs. That they all were committed to saving the world.

_Carmilla wonders, bitterly, whether any had come to regret it. If they had, none had said so. There would have been no point._

Still, that night, wounded Perry had pored over the texts that had taught her everything she now knew about manipulating the world's energies. Trying to find a loophole, a way to let humans pass through the barrier.

Not for herself, she'd confessed, but because she desperately wanted to get LaFontaine out. To make sure she was safe.

_The water is warm against Carmilla's feet. She can almost taste the salt against her pale, dead flesh, as she strides into the waves._

It was six days later that the vampires broke through into the dormitories, their safe haven.

Six days later that they had been forced to flee the one home they'd known for years. Carmilla and Laura had been force to spend three days in a cupboard, crammed against one another, as Laura told Carmilla every detail of her life with her father. Begged her to go to him, after all of this was done, and tell him she was sorry.

Laura had been sure, that night, it would be her last. It wasn't. Someone else paid that price.

Perry hadn't been ready to move; her injuries were still too severe. LaFontaine had refused to leave her side, preferring to hold her hand and stare down death like a champion.

And so Perry had broken LaFontaine's trust to save her. Used the last of her energy to access her magics, the craft she'd studied since things with Mother had gone from kidnapping girls to even greater darkness. Perry used those energies now to bedevil LaFontaine, confuse her into leaving the dorms. And to create a magical shell around her, making her impermeable to the vampires. A second skin of magical iron.

It took everything she had left. Everything.

It was only when LaFontaine had awoken in the forest, alone, that she remembered Lola's hand cold in hers, and known what Perry had done.

Three figures in the cold, without a home nor allies, on a campus stalked by the undead.

_The water hits the edge of Carmilla's dress, near her knees. Something simple and black she'd picked for the occasion. She left her beloved leather pants, that outdated relic of her youth, at home. She wants to feel the water against her skin, through the thin fabric._

It was only a few days later that Laura had awoken to lips pressed against hers, and opened her eyes to see Danny smiling down at her. The Amazon had grinned, and just as Laura hoped this was all a bad dream, had remarked that she couldn't say goodbye without a kiss.

Then Laura had realised that she was still asleep.

Danny had clasped her hands around Laura's hands and told her the secret. The things only the dead know. And then she'd stood and walked into the trees and the darkness, where other silhouettes lingered, waiting for her. One of them had waved, a jerk of friendly motion, and Laura's heart tightened. She knew immediately that it was Kirsch. She just knew.

The silhouettes faded into the dark, and Laura awoke in the dirt of the forest floor, Carmilla warm and quiet in her arms.

She'd glanced at LaFontaine, who was smiling in her sleep, and known she wasn't the only one getting a chance to say goodbye.

And that morning, they'd plunged into the depth of the campus. Found the spot, behind the old chemistry building, where ancient bones were buried in an unmarked grave. And LaFontaine had rigged up a chemical flame that would burn brighter than anything they'd ever seen.

It was like the sun come to ground, burning their eyes; yet they couldn't look away. Am immortal scream had curled through the air, overwhelming until it wasn't.

And then it was over.

_The water is up to her chest now. It's warmer than she expected. And light is creeping along the horizon now._

Mother was gone, and the barrier was destroyed. The vampires, weakened, scattered and fell back into secret lives.

They'd saved Silas. They'd saved the world.

They left Styria behind them and never returned. LaFontaine vanished out into the world, leaving her heart buried somewhere in Styria. Laura brought Carmilla home to meet her father. Carmilla, with her soft-spoken poetry and iron strength of will, earned his favour. It wasn't long before they married. Three years at war together, you learn whether you can handle someone forgetting to take the garbage out.

They never had children. After Silas, neither of them wanted to risk their hearts like that. Laura still dreamed of vampires, after all, and Carmilla would awaken and comfort her as best she could. They were done with evil; they'd done enough for a lifetime.

They bought a house, with some of the significant funds Carmilla had hidden away over the years. Laura went to grad school, then completed her PhD. They built a life together. Their home had a large deck, where they would lie together and watch the stars.

Ever five years or so, LaFontaine would reappear with the results of some adventure. Information on the biological systems of vampires. A report on how the vampires of South Africa differed from the ones in Styria. Prophecies, dug from ancient collections, that they'd unknowingly played out at Silas. Always focused on the science. Always with a bit of a broken heart.

_Fifty years._

_Fifty years together._

_And now Laura is gone._

The service was lovely. Tiny Laura, just shy of seventy, laid out. It was too young. She'd gone quietly, in the night, in Carmilla's arms. Carmilla, still in the shape of the girl she'd been too many lifetimes ago. An ancient child grieving a wife both younger and older than she. Unbearable.

_Carmilla looks up at the sky. The sun is rising. Soon enough, she will be under the water, in the deep. She's not sure what will happen; she doesn't need oxygen to breathe._

_She will curl up on the bottom of the ocean and wait._

_For what? She's not sure._

_Perhaps for the end of the world._


End file.
